Kanawha River
study
West Virginia American Water's 2015-2016 Comprehensive Water Quality Study of the Kanawha River
West Virginia American Water recently completed a year-long, comprehensive
water quality study of the Kanawha River between Montgomery and Charleston. The
company commissioned this $1.3 million study to collect water quality and
sediment data to evaluate the Kanawha River as a potential alternate source of
supply for its Kanawha Valley Water Treatment Plant on the Elk River.
In 2014, the West Virginia
Legislature
strengthened state laws aimed at protecting the state’s drinking
water sources and required water systems to evaluate alternate water sources as
part of new
Source Water Protection Plans. In 2015, at the request of the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection (WVDEP)
, the Legislature re-designated a 72-mile stretch of the
Kanawha River from Diamond to Point Pleasant as a West Virginia Public Water
Supply “Category A” waterway. This designation had not been applied to this
section of the river for decades due to potential water quality concerns related
to industrial discharges.
Although the re-designation established protections of this river segment
from future discharges, it did not include or require any analysis of the
river’s current suitability as a drinking water source. Therefore, West Virginia
American Water hired a professional engineering and environmental consulting
firm to help it develop and complete the most comprehensive water and sediment
study ever undertaken of the Kanawha River. State regulators were also closely
involved in developing the study methodology.
The study, which spanned from June 2015 to June 2016, analysed water samples
collected from multiple locations, depths and distances from the riverbank
across a range of weather events and flow conditions. Hundreds of samples were
analysed by certified laboratories for more than 150 parameters, including
Federal
Safe Drinking Water Act
primary and secondary drinking water standards, West
Virginia’s “Category A” Water Quality Standard and parameters on the U.S. EPA’s
Unregulated
Contaminant Monitoring Rule 3
list. Due to past industrial, chemical and
mining use of the Kanawha River, the study also examined more than 50 sediment
samples for total organic carbon, metals, polychlorinated biphenyls, volatile
and semi-volatile organic compounds and dioxin to identify contaminants in the
river bottom, which could potentially be released back into the water over
time.
This level of sampling and analysis far exceeded typical requirements for the
evaluation of a drinking water supply. However, to seriously consider the
Kanawha River as backup supply for the company’s largest water system, sound and
comprehensive empirical data was necessary – particularly with the river’s
history of industrial use and lack of historical water quality data.
The 25,000 data points resulting from this study identified only 10 of more
than 150 parameters above the associated water quality standards, which
represent less than 2 percent of the total number of samples collected. Many
contaminants can potentially be removed through conventional water treatment
processes; however, because the study compared raw (untreated) water to drinking
(treated) water standards, additional treatability studies would be necessary to
determine if the water can be treated to meet all drinking water standards.
West Virginia American Water continues to review the 585-page report, which
was finalized on Sept. 22, 2016 and shared with the WVDEP and WVBPH. The study
is one of the first steps in evaluating the feasibility of using the Kanawha
River as an alternate drinking water source. Other factors include treatability
studies, intake site availability, permitting, ability to microtunnel a 48- to
60-inch pipe under downtown Charleston, rate impact to customers, and approvals
from both the WVBPH and Public Service Commission (PSC). Preliminary engineering
reports estimate that constructing a second intake on the Kanawha River would
cost $56-$137 million.
Executive Summary
Full Kanawha River Study